Today I ran my first half marathon, the Texas Half.
It was a beautiful, unusually warm day on White Rock Lake... a lot warmer than it was 3 weeks ago for Too Cold to Hold. At the 8am gun, it was in the high 40s and getting warmer.
I started off feeling fine, but during the second mile my hamstrings began to tighten. At one point, I considered pulling up but ran through the tightness and by the third mile I was only feeling a burning in my legs. It was about this time that the course took us away from the lake and into a residential neighborhood. I kept up a 10:30 pace through mile 6 when the course brought us back to the edge of the lake.
It wasn't until mile 10 that I really started to feel drained. My pace slowed down significantly, but I refused to let anyone pass me. At this point I was in the back 1/3 of the race. In the last mile, I picked up the pace again and crossed the finish line at 2:24:45. I walked to one of the volunteers to have my chip removed then a Young Marine handed me my first finisher's medal. I beamed from ear to ear as I hung it around my neck and then walked (limped) up to the building for bagels and water.
Pictures will be posted soon!
